364 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



Fig. 417. — Euchroiiuf yitjanteu. 



The family of Bupeestidje includes a large number of beetles which somewhat 

 resemble the Elaterida^, but differ from them in not possessing the power of springing 



when placed upon the back, and consequently 

 they do not have the prothorax very freely mov- 

 able upon the mesothorax. They also differ from 

 the Elateridte in having the first and second ven- 

 tral segments connate. The eleven-jointed an- 

 tennae of the Buprestidffi are almost invariably 

 serrate ; the head is small and retractile to the 

 e\es in the prothorax ; the posterior end of the 

 body is tapered off to a point ; the ornamentation 

 is visually with metallic colors, and the surface is 

 often highly polished. In Polybothris, a genus 

 found in Madagascar, the coloration during life 

 is glistening metallic, which, as in Cassida of the 

 Chrysomelidse, disapjjears upon the death of the 

 insect. The tropical species of Buprestidas are 

 often large, Euchronia gigatitea from Brazil 

 reaching a length of 2.75 inches, and a breadth 

 of over an inch ; the size of the sjiecies becomes 

 gradually less in aj)proaching the tem])erate and 

 colder regions. These insects frequent flowers or sit upon bark, and are most active 

 in bright sunlight ; upon approach, many kinds fly away -with great rapidity, others 

 retract their short legs and drop to the ground, feigning death. 



The lar\:e of Buprestidoe usually bore ellijitical jiassages in living and dead wood ; 

 a few, like those of Trac/ti/n, mine in leaves, and still fewer (e. //. Diphucrania 

 auriflua) live i]i gatls. The lar\;e have a \ ery characteristic form due to excessive 

 enlargement and partial chitinization of the protlioracic segiueut, into which the head 

 is retractile. There are no ocelli and no feet, the latter organs being represented in a 

 few species by little fleshy tubercles ; the antennm are Aery short and formed of two 

 or three joints. Larval life varies in duration; in Truchyis iHinuta, which mines w'A- 

 low leaves, Rudow found two generations yearly; Ferris found that many species 

 comjjleted their metamorphoses in a year, while liatzeburg states that 

 two years are occupied in the cycle of metamorphoses. Pupation 

 takes place in the burrows made by the larva. 



The small, flattened, ovate, somewhat angular species of Bradiijs 

 are found upon leaves of different plants, and their larva' are leaf- 

 miners, like those of the related genus, Tracliijs. £. tessellata is only 

 about 0.15 of an inch long, and nearly black in coloration ; it is found 

 in the eastern United States. B. wruylnosa, a sjiecies of about the 

 same size, and found in the same region, mines in the lea\es of the 

 beech. 



The numerous species of Agrilns are elongated, and have the antennae free, not 

 received in grooves as in Srachys and Trachys. AgriJus rtiJicoUis is quite injurious 

 to raspberry and blackberry patches in the eastern United States. The beetle is 

 narrow, about 0.25 of an inch long; its head and thorax is a beautiful coppery bronze, 

 the elytra are black. The larvae, which are about 0.5 of an inch long, and pale yellow, 

 with a brownish head and black mandibles, bore about in the sap-M'ood of the black- 



Fio. 41s. — Brachys 

 fi'ssellafa. 



